Great State: Queen Victoria’s Secret?

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KINGFISHER, OKLAHOMA -- The 'trail' from Britain to Chisholm is a narrow one.

Queen Victoria never made it to Oklahoma but her influence certainly did.

A territorial governor, Frank Seay, built his house to please her sense of style.

Now, across the street from that house in Kingfisher, Chisholm Trail museum director Adam Lynn has taken charge of a Victorian treasure trove.

"It is a dream come true to be able to handle artifacts such as these," he says.

An anonymous collector of royal items who grew up in Kingfisher lent part of his collection to the Chisholm Trail Museum.

Some of Victoria's family tree is here dating back to her grandfather King George III. Adam shows off items from her coronation in 1838 to her Jubilee fifty years later.

Several artifacts on hand she are personally signed by her majesty.

"Her's something that she signed," points Lynn. "A book that she had written."

But the prize of this small exhibit would have to be a glass case full of more personal items belonging to the Queen: her stockings as a young monarch compared with the stockings she wore at the end of her reign.

Curator Lynn observes, "compared to later on in the 1870's she grew a little larger."

There is a personalized petticoat on display here, and one of her nightgowns.

It's nothing too daring compared with our much more permissive, modern era.

But in looking at her stern portrait we playfully wondered if she would have approved.

"No. She's not pleased," agrees Lynn. "and she never really was pleased."

Queen Victoria was famous for referring to her royal self in the third person.

"We are not amused," she would say.

But Director Lynn begs forgiveness from an audience more than a century removed from her delicate sensibilities.